Alex was up when I wasn’t so he let me sleep in. Then I woke up and he was still sleeping, so I let him keep going. We were both up at 11:30 am. He slept on an air mattress and I got the couch. Both were super spacious and comfortable. We eventually left Martha’s to catch the J MUNI train around 12:30 pm to head to dim sum.

We crushed dim sum at Yank Sing at the end of Market Street near the waterfront from 1 – 1:30 pm. It was sold to us as the best dim sum in SF from several sources, and it lived up to its reputation. It was expensive, but we got what we paid for. We had a lot of everything, and it was awesome. After we were done we walked down to the waterfront area, where we realized we knew where we were because that area of town was a level in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4. Years of video games do pay off.

We checked out pier 14 and walked to the end to get a good view of that part of SF (no Golden Gate or Alcatraz, but still nice). We attempted to operate an interactive art statue thing, but to no avail. After our failed attempt we walked next door to the Ferry Market, an awesome indoor market with food shops and restaurants. We got tons of free samples! We had cheese, olive oils, and chocolate brittle, to name a few.

After doing the waterfront we walked to Chinatown, which we found out was the oldest Chinatown in America! We walked basically the entirety of it. A highlight was Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company, where we got to watch an old woman make fortune cookies off an old machine. It was super cool, and we got free samples! Alex and I also got sesame donut things at a bakery and I got bubble tea. There were so many interesting shops and food stores in Chinatown, and it was SO much less aggressive than the one in NY. What a breath of fresh air.

We exited Chinatown and went downtown to explore the more corporate side of things. The free samples continued. We walked in to a Nespresso shop in search of free coffee on what we found out was international coffee day. We were directed to their complimentary tasting bar, where I sampled a DELICIOUS vanilla breakfast roast. We also made friends with Nichole, an awesome employee who shared her dream to do a cross country road trip with me. (I hope you’re reading this blog post!!). Next we came across ANOTHER free Monster Energy Drink truck (as in New Orleans and Venice Beach) where we got the new energy tea and then free chocolate samples at the Ghirardelli store. Team Handsome’s riding the good karma wave.

I passed a Verizon store and told Alex I wanted to see if I could change my data plan because I was paying too much for too little. Nathan, the guy who helped us, quickly became out best friend. He and Alex bonded over tech stuff, and he thought we were hilarious (he was right), so he gave us his number to stay in touch / so he could help me out with future problems personally and some recommendations of things to do in the area. Good times with Nathan.

We took the train back to Martha’s. We met a really nice woman on the packed train back who told us about the area of SF we were in and just discussed life with us. Really friendly people in SF. We freshened up and put our makeup on so we could impress our friends at our dinner date. We met Asher Hecht, his girlfriend Morgan, and my Rochester friend Kathy McCully aka B LUMPS at La Taqueria in the Mission neighborhood for burritos around 8. According to Asher, some guy did a burrito bracket and claimed theirs to be the best in the USA. It was damn good, as was the chorizo quesadilla Alex and I split. We then went next door to Mission Pie and split a slice of banana cream pie for dessert. Crushed it.

We then went to some bar close by to get drinks and meet up with Alex Plutzer, who was one of my best friends during my first 2 years at Wekeela in 2001-2 and who I hadn’t seen in well over a decade. It was so great to spend time with such amazing people. Kathy’s boyfriend Rob met up with us later. What an awesome crew. Everyone left around 11 or so because it was a work night and some traveled from far away.

Alex and I walked back a mile and a half to Martha’s apartment. We happened upon Urban Putt, a bar / indoor mini golf place, which was super cool. We got back around 11:45 pm, having walked 21,322 steps aka 10.3 miles that day. We chilled for a bit and were in bed around 12:30 am, ready for another adventure the next day.

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